Pizza, Ice Cream, Puzzles, and Family
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: In truth, they all want their family to be happy. Drabble.


Title: "Pizza, Ice Cream, Puzzles, and Family"  
Author: Kat Lee, formerly Pirate Turner  
Rating: G  
Summary: In truth, they all want their family to be happy.  
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.  
Author's Note: 244. That's the number of stories that were sitting on my hard drive collecting dust because I lack the energy and time to take care of them as I once did. My betaing pattern has always been to write, then type up if written on paper, the story, read it aloud to my beloved Jack and our children, editing as I go, and then finally format and post. Sadly, this part is simply taking too much of my time and energy, and my beloved Jack and I have too little time together in person these days to be able to keep up with my stories. So what to do? Give up writing? I actually considered it for a while, tried to make excuses to myself other than the large number of stories collecting cyber dust on my computer, as to why I lacked the energy and Muse to write new tales. And then, with the turn of the new year, I decided to stop running and face the problem. The problem is, quite frankly, that once one gets so bogged down in formatting and editing that writing is no longer a pleasure but the actual posting of those writings becomes a hassle and - egad! - work, it's time to cut something out, and that will never be the writing process. So, in short, yes, there will be mistakes in this tale. Yes, it's missing about half of the header information I usually include. But I wrote it for pleasure and am posting it in hopes of sharing that pleasure with others. Do with it as you will.

"I dunno, Donnie," Mikey mumbled to a downcast-looking Donatello with one arm in a sprint. "I can't find that piece anywhere."

"Get up offa yer shell," Raph snapped, "an' ya might actually find somethin'."

Donnie sighed. The puzzle was broken, just like he was and his family would be, too, if Raphael's anger did not curtail.

"Raph - " Leo started warningly.

"What, Leo?" Raph sneered. "Don't say somethin' 'bout playing this stupid game we can't even finish now?"

The angry, young turtle hushed as a wise and gentle voice cleared knowingly. A hairy paw reached out into the midst of the four turtles. "Perhaps," Master Splinter spoke, opening his aged fingers and swishing his wiry tail, "this is what you are looking for?"

Mikey grabbed the missing puzzle piece from their Sensei's hand and added it to the puzzle. "Yeah!" he almost shouted happily right in Raph's ear. "This is exactly what we needed, Sensei!"

"That was brilliant, Sensei!" Leonardo beamed at their Master, who, truly, was more of a father to the four, young ones. "Using a puzzle piece to show us how we need our family - need you - to make us whole!"

Splinter's loving smile was disrupted by Raphael's dark mutter. "Sheesh, Leo, kiss tail much?"

"Raphael!" Splinter reprimanded, but as Raphael turned his rolling eyes toward the old rat, he caught sight of Donnie, who was finally smiling for the first time in days after breaking his arm and being unable to perform his usual experiments.

"Sorry," Raph muttered, hiding his own answering grin. "I guess you're right. You're always right." Quickly, he changed the subject. "Who wants ice cream?"

He was rewarded by Donnie's and Mike's swift answers. "Me! ME!" Michelangelo shouted again in his ear. "I want mine on pizza!"

"Of course you do, Mikey," Raph murmured, rolling his eyes, but then smiled again at his quiet, genius brother. "We can all have pizza and ice cream." He might be full of anger normally, but even he wanted his family to be happy. Splinter and Leo shared knowing smiles before following their family into the kitchen.

**The End**


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